Pirates roll to 9-0 triumph against LoboesWhite tosses two-hit gem

SEMINOLE - On a chilly, rainy evening of baseball Friday, Cooper pitcher Marcus White continually had trouble with his footing on the pitcher's mound.

He would have more trouble with the mud on the mound, however, than he would with the hitters from Monahans.

White pitched a two-hit complete-game shutout against the Loboes in the first game of the two teams' best-of-three Class 3A regional quarterfinal series. His performance, coupled with the usual strong outing from the Pirates' offense, pushed Cooper to a 9-0 victory at Indian Field.

"I was on (Friday)," said White, who notched five strikeouts in the win. "I had a really good game going, I thought.

"And the mud on the mound wasn't really that bad, either."

While the sophomore wasn't overpowering, he did have the Monahans batters under control for most of the game. The Loboes seldom made solid contact with any of White's offerings, and when they did, the Cooper defense would simply gobble up the ball and make an out.

Monahans only seriously threatened to break through twice. The first came in the second inning when a pair of Loboes reached base with walks. But White settled down to force a routine fly from Lucas Ramos to end the inning.

And in the fourth inning, Josh Swarb led off with a walk and Brady Hawkins followed up with a single the Loboes' first hit of the game. But a pop-out by Josh Melius and a nice play from shortstop Blake Malick, who turned a double play on a Shorty Porras grounder, ended the threat as quickly as it began.

"There in the second and (fourth) innings, I lost my focus a little bit," White said. "But the guys pulled me through it and helped me out a lot."

While White was easing his way through the Monahans batting order, his counterpart for the Loboes (19-10) was laboring. Roy Porras, a big left-hander, ran into trouble in the second inning and never really escaped it for the remainder of his stay on the mound.

After recording a pair of outs to start the second, Porras allowed four straight Pirates to reach base, with two managing to score on a Josh Ridener double before the inning ended.

Cooper (25-6) continued to chip away at the hurler, notching single runs in both the third and fourth innings. In the fifth, the Pirates finally dropped the guillotine on Porras, piling up five hits and five runs - with the five RBIs coming from five different Cooper players.

"Once the floodgates opened, we couldn't stop it," Monahans head coach Arcadio Rivera said. "(Cooper) did a good job of putting the ball in play against us. They came out and hit the ball."

The massive run support from his offense seemed to give White further confidence. He retired nine straight batters from the fourth to the seventh inning. The streak was eventually broken by Melius, who connected with a one-out single in the seventh.

By then, though, White was in complete control with a 9-0 lead, and his team was well on its way to a win.

"We did a good job of putting the ball in play and scratching for runs," Cooper head coach Terry Baxter said. "Porras is a real good pitcher and that was our goal."

The two teams will continue their series with Game 2 scheduled for 1 p.m. today in Seminole. If necessary, Game 3 will start 30 minutes after the completion of Game 2.SUBHEAD: